


I'll Be Here Waiting, Baby

by Natileroxs



Series: Hold Me Closer, Tiny Dancer [1]
Category: My Chemical Romance, Palaye Royale (Band)
Genre: Age Difference, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Don't question it, Fluff and Angst, I don't know, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, M/M, Not Beta Read, One Shot, Series, Writing on Skin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-17
Updated: 2019-06-17
Packaged: 2020-05-13 12:10:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19250938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Natileroxs/pseuds/Natileroxs
Summary: Mikey doesn't have a soulmate, never has, never will.Until one day he finds childlike sketches climbing up his arm.





	I'll Be Here Waiting, Baby

**Author's Note:**

> i don't know. don't question me

Mikey had never thought about what it was like to have a soulmate. He just accepted that he didn’t have one and moved on. He never dreamed of _what ifs_ , and instead just decided to devote himself to life itself, ignore the thought of being alone forever. So, at sixteen, when he got sick all of a sudden, he didn’t think anything of it and just continued on.

 

He was happy, being soulmate-less, all he needed was his big brother Gerard. And as the years went on, he never found himself too lonely, amassing a tight-knit group of friends. He didn’t need anyone, any special soulmate to sweep him off his feet.

 

Back when he was a kid, he was taught all about soulmates. Whatever your soulmate wrote on their skin would show up on your own. They’d gotten everyone in his class to write on their arms, but while a lot of them got some sort of response, he didn’t. They said you’d feel your soulmate, feel their presence. Mikey had never felt a thing.

 

He’s almost twenty-one and soulmate-less, sitting in the back of the car with his head against the window when he feels an unfamiliar sort of pressure pushing into his forearm. He glances down to find dark wobbly lines being drawn slowly, unsure. He watches, stunned, as they begin to connect into shapes. Uneven flowers and lopsided hearts climb up his arm, followed by smiley faces and a grinning sun.

 

Gerard looks over his shoulder at him and Mikey quickly pulls his sleeve to his wrist. He feels giddy, dizzy with a mix of relief, confusion, and worry. A kid? His soulmate is a kid? Is that bad?

 

He looks it up when he gets home, searching the web for any clue. He finds out that you get really sick when your soulmate is born if you’re the elder of the two. He also finds out that, while not common, large age gaps between soulmates do occur. And so do things like multiple soulmates. He’s never met anyone like that, anyone, so… different.

 

When Gerard first talked to his soulmate, Mikey was too young to even comprehend what was going on, all he saw were shaky words and his big brother grinning a lot. Gerard didn’t know his soulmates full name at the time, no one does at first. Your mind puts a mental block on the word and you can’t write it. Only the first letter, sometimes the second. So, as the weeks go on and he watches as his arm becomes a canvas, he works up the courage to write something back.

 

He scrawls an **“M”** on his skin and waits for a response, getting one in the form of swirls spiralling away from the letter and up his arm. He smiles softly.

 

* * *

 

Gerard finds out not long after Mikey’s twenty-second birthday, and honestly, Mikey is surprised he lasted this long under the watchful gaze of his brother, especially with how close in proximity they’d been ever since starting the band. He’s just sitting there, completing doodles his soulmate starts on his arm when he feels a presence behind him.

 

When he hesitantly looks over his shoulder, Gerard is hovering there, frown etched into his face. Mikey isn’t sure what to say.

 

“So…”

 

“Yeah, I have a soulmate, so what?” He snaps back in a feat of panic. Gerard’s lips simply break out into a grin as he places his hand on Mikey’s shoulder, gazing down at Mikey’s arm, which is still being added to.

 

“That’s fucking amazing.”

 

Mikey can’t help but feel proud. For the first time it dawns on him that he’s been so focused on everything else he’s never even thought up a soulmate, so resigned to the lonely road ahead of him that he hasn’t allowed himself to dream. And even after these drawings began to appear, he’s never truly acknowledged what it means.

 

“It is.”

 

* * *

 

He’s twenty-three when he gets a hesitant **“hello”** and he’s so happy that he forgets he’s at practice, working on autopilot as he sets his bass down and snatches a pen from somewhere, sending over a smiley face and a **“hi”**. They continue this through the next few months, every so often his soulmate would learn how to spell a new word and rush to write it down.

 

He’s in bed gently running his fingers across the strings of his bass when he notices a sentence printed on his hand.

 

**“What is your name?”**

 

He rushes to respond.

 

**“I can’t tell you, sorry. But call me M.”**

 

His soulmate’s next response is a question mark and a frowny face. So he gently pushes the pen against his skin again. **“What’s your name?”**

 

**“Can not write it.”**

 

**“First letter?”**

 

**“E.”**

 

Okay… Mikey tries to think of all the names that start with E but not many come to mind. He decides to leave it and come back to it later, changing the topic.

 

**“It’s nice to meet you, E.”**

 

A smiley face and the words **“you to”** \- missing the second o, of course - come back and Mikey shakes his head, draws a small face and goes back to strumming his bass.

 

* * *

 

Hyped on drugs, Mikey can’t quite make out what’s written on his arm, vision continuously blurring. All he can see is a smiley face next to a frowny face and a question mark. He fumbles for a pen and circles the frown.

 

A few tears escape from his eyes when his soulmate rushes to send him hearts and words of love.

 

* * *

 

E is a boy, he knows that much. A very artistic boy, constantly drawing up his arms. Sometimes he draws over Mikey’s tattoos and Mikey quickly reminds the kid not to draw there. He has two elder brothers, R and S, as well as a mother who he absolutely adores. He also loves music, raving about every single thing he knows or learns. Mikey teaches him sometimes, trying to put his knowledge to good use.

 

Only Gerard knows about his soulmate, and he knows a lot. Mikey tells him everything, every little detail. He spills all his worries and praises at his big brother, knowing he will listen. But his secretiveness doesn’t last very long, Frank gaining a glimpse at his arm covered in intricate artwork - E’s been getting so much better at his work, Mikey thinks he could even be a famous artist one day - and gives him a look, a smirk, and a little chuckle. Ray isn’t as calm about the whole thing, quickly throwing out questions left and right, which Mikey does his best to answer.

 

One night he’s simply relaxing after a stressful show in which pretty much everything almost went wrong, but corrected itself at the last moment when he feels the tip of a pen run across his arm. He tugs up his sleeve and finds scribbled words, written in a hurry.

 

**“They won’t stop.”**

 

He gulps and readies himself before answering. **“Stop? Who?”**

 

**“Mom and Dad. They won’t stop fighting. I”**

 

E stops and Mikey writes down a bunch of question marks, followed by his soulmate’s letter. He sits there for about half an hour, waiting with a strained face before two dots and a line appears on his skin. A straight face, or unsure.

 

**“E?”**

  
**“Yes.”**

 

**“What happened? Did they stop?”**

 

 **“Yeah.”** The next words come slow. **“He’s gone.”**

 

Mikey runs one hand through his hair as he thinks. He thinks of if that’s a good thing or not. He jots down a smiley face and a frowny face and E circles half of the smiley face.

 

**“Are you okay?”**

 

 **“I guess. Maybe? Can you just.”** The writing pauses. **“Stay here with me. You don’t need to write anything, just stay here with me for a bit.”**

 

Mikey sighs, listens as he hears his bandmates messing around outside, and nods to himself.

 

**“Okay, I’m here.”**

 

* * *

 

He’s twenty-eight and a big smiley face appears on his hand, and he darts out of soundcheck to write back. He asks what his soulmate is so happy about, curious and somewhat excited when he gets the response that he and his brothers were asked to go on TV and perform their music.

 

**“That’s amazing.”**

**“I know! I’m really excited.”**

**“I wish you the best of luck.”**

**“Thank you.”**

 

Gerard finds him in the back room clutching his bass to his chest with a big smile on his face.

 

He doesn’t get to see E on TV. They figure out that his soulmate can’t write down the channel, show or time. So he sighs and runs his hands down his face and gets ready to go on stage and face all of their cheering fans. And he does all of this with the hint of a proud smile on his face, belting out the chords with as much enthusiasm as his brother does when crying out the vocals.

 

When he gets off stage, he checks his arm, writes a quick note about how proud he is after he notices all the **“they loved it so much”** and falls asleep.

 

* * *

 

 **“Happy 18th.”** For good measure, he draws a few balloons. My Chemical Romance has broken up and while he has Electric Century, oddly enough he finds himself having a lot more free time, so he spends more time making sure his soulmate is happy and doing well. The boy’s always raving about going on tour and how fun it is to be on stage and honestly Mikey is so happy for him.

 

When he’s thirty-two, he remembers E telling him that he’d dropped out of school. Mikey had initially been concerned before his soulmate had reassured him that 1. His mother had been completely fine with it and 2. It wasn’t because he was struggling in school, nor because he’d done something wrong. He just wanted to leave and get on the road. It didn't make a whole heap of sense until E had explained that they’d uploaded a song, gotten a bunch of views on youtube and a bunch of fans crying out to see them. Mikey couldn’t help but grin so widely his face felt like it was going to split.

 

**“Thank you.”**

 

**“Good birthday so far?”**

 

**“Yeah. The presents I got were awesome.”**

 

**“Cool.”**

 

He stands up, making his way out of his room and towards the kitchen, pen still in hand, and begins to make lunch. He peeks in the fridge to find a small cupcake sitting there, candle sticking out of it. He looks at it for a minute before he sighs and instead makes a sandwich.

 

Late at night he takes out the cupcake, lights the candle, blows it out and stuffs the food down his throat, scoffs the whole thing down. He then slowly counts the months until his soulmate turns twenty-one. Until he can be face to face with him and hug him and kiss him and just be there… be there for him.

 

He doesn’t know when he starts crying, but he knows that when he does, he can’t stop.  

 

* * *

 

One day he humours himself by counting the days until E’s 21st birthday, and suddenly realises that he can count them with only his two hands. Eight days.

 

Stunned, he picks up his phone, calls his brother and freezes up, unable to speak. Gerard must realise something because he hangs up and Mikey is still sitting there, breathing heavily, when he turns up.

 

“Mikey? What is it?”

 

His hands shake as he holds up the correct amount of fingers. “Eight days.”

 

“Eight days?” Gerard repeats, confused. And then he takes a moment to think, mentally figuring out what is in eight days. “Wait… really?”

 

Mikey mutely nods his head, slowly standing and snatching a pen from the counter. He scribbles the number down and gets a smiley face and a **“yes”** in return. He then runs his hands through his hair and lowers himself to the ground. Gerard towers over him for a second before kneeling in front of him.

 

“Are you okay?”

 

“I… how could I forget?”

 

Gerard places his hands on his little brother’s shoulders and presses his forehead to the other’s. “People forget things all the time, Mikey. It’s not your fault.”

 

“But Gee…”

 

“Hey, not buts. Come on, we’re gonna go get a drink, I don’t care.” He stands and then pulls Mikey up. “We need to celebrate. It’s so close.”

 

Mikey suddenly clutches tightly to his big brother, who lets him and begins to comb his little brother’s hair back. Gerard then lets Mikey get dressed while he calls Frank and Ray before leading his little brother out to the nearest bar. They all get pissed drunk and Mikey wakes up smiling despite his killer hangover.

 

* * *

 

“Happy birthday!” His big brothers shout in his ears. He’s 12 and he’s so excited to talk to his soulmate again. M is such a big influence on his life even though he’s never met him before, so he really wants to share every single little moment with him, even if it’s not in person.

 

“Emerson!” He can hear his mother call out and he scrambles out of bed, rushing to get ready for the day.

 

He throws on clothes, scoffs down his breakfast and no matter how many times his mother tells him to slow down, he doesn’t. As soon as he’s ready he takes out the pen he’s found on the table and writes quickly. When he runs out of words to say, he begins to draw, mindful of the places M had told him his tattoos sit.

 

M is older than him, he knows that. He’s known since he was a little kid. His mother had found his arm covered in small notes and full on sentences as his soulmate attempted to communicate with him. She had initially been shocked and hadn’t asked him about it until he was around seven when he could fully comprehend what his mother was talking about. She told him to ask M how old he was, and when he got a response - twenty-three - she almost fainted.

 

She’d asked around about what it meant, to all the soulmate experts she could find. They said it while it was unusual, it wasn’t unheard of. And that things happen for a reason. A year later, Remington hesitantly confessed he had two soulmates, which started the process all over again.  

 

**“Happy birthday, E.”**

 

 **“Thank you.”** He adds a smiley face.

 

Every day, he tends to draw on his arm, whether it be something simple or extravagant, he consistently draws, because he knows it makes his soulmate happy. As he gets older, he gets better, and the better he gets, the more he can feel his soulmate smile.

 

Even as school pushes him down, even as they struggle through everyone trying to pull him and his brother down, he keeps going. He keeps going, thinking of the day he’ll finally meet the one that belongs to him. That he belongs to.

 

* * *

 

Mikey wakes with a nervous grin plastered on his face. He goes through his morning routine on autopilot, shaking with anticipation. When he finally gets a message, he almost has a small panic attack before he slows his breathing and smiles.

 

**“Are you in L.A?”**

 

**“Yeah.”**

 

**“Meet me, coffee, 11.”**

 

E writes the address and Mikey spins around, calls his brother and almost has a heart attack all in the span of ten minutes.

 

He tries to make himself look as good as possible, nervous and self conscious in the mirror. When it’s time to step out of the house, he feels ill and hesitates for a minute before thinking of what Gerard would say, how disappointed he’d be in him. So he puts one foot in front of the other and turns up five minutes early.

 

He peeks inside, the smell of coffee overwhelming his senses, and looks around for what exactly he doesn’t know. So he simply goes up to the register, orders and waits. The barrister ducks her head over the machine, speaking to him.

 

“You looking for something, yeah?”

 

“Huh?”

 

“Soulmate I’m guessin’.” She nods over at a table over by the window as she finishes his order and hands it over. “He was too. Maybe you should go introduce yourself.”

 

He nods awkwardly and steps away, mouthing thank you, and sliding himself in across from the guy she was talking about.

 

The table is covered in intricate sketches that are eerily familiar to him before he figures out where he’s seen them. Up and down his arm, for the last eight or nine years. The boy is hunched over, beverage long forgotten as he is lost in his work. His hair is long and brown, coming down in soft waves. A hat is stuffed on his head and he’s wearing a black velvet jacket with gold edgings, several necklaces hanging from his neck and a pair of sunglasses abandoned on the table.

 

It takes the kid a moment before he looks up and sees Mikey’s face, shades and slight smile and everything. If his look of surprise is anything to go by, he’s already recognised the former member of My Chemical Romance.

 

“She said you were waiting for your soulmate. Would that person happen to have a name starting with M?”

 

The kid drops the pen and fully looks him up and down, stunned not just from Mikey’s stardom but because the little cogs are ticking in his head, slowly coming to the truth.

 

“M?”

 

“E.”

 

The kid grins and Mikey immediately saves the image to memory, keeping it at the back of his head. “It’s… It’s Emerson actually,” he giggles a little and leans over the table. “I can’t believe my soulmate is Mikey Way.”

 

“I can’t believe my soulmate is as cute as you are.”

 

Emerson lets out a little laugh, blushing, and pulls back, tidying up his artwork.

 

“My brother is going to absolutely freak, he _loves_ My Chem.”

 

* * *

 

Emerson’s brother does _freak_. Remington - as Emerson introduces him -  catches a glimpse of Mikey and Emerson walking side by side, hand in hand, and full on grabs the eldest brother - Emerson introduced him as Sebastian - and tugs on his arm a few times to get his attention. Sebastian’s eyebrows raise over his sunglasses, but he calmly shakes Mikey’s hand, welcomes him to the family, and acts pretty chill.

 

Remington’s fan-boy-ness is nowhere near as bad as he thought it might be, obviously used to meeting people he idolised. That doesn’t stop him from full-on nervously cackling with his scratchy voice when Mikey tells him he’d have to introduce him and Gerard.

 

They play a show, full of energy and spirit, and Mikey loves every moment of it, surrounded by the crowd, cheering on a screaming Remington, suit-clad Sebastian, talented bassist Daniel, and of course, his beautiful soulmate, the drummer Emerson.

 

When they go to wrap up, Remington points to his spot in the crowd and calls for him to come on stage. He’s hoisted over the barricade, pulled up on stage and the crowd cries louder. Emerson stands beside him and he wraps his arm around the younger boy’s shoulders.

 

They’re both smiling.

 

**Author's Note:**

> had to have a sappy ending. more one-shots to come. 
> 
> brallon? ryden? weekesman??? throw spencer in there somewhere?
> 
> i've got most of the other ships sorted in my mind, so i hope you all are looking forward for more to come
> 
> I have a discord server that's dying, feel free to join and revive it. Bandom, Homestuck, Buzzfeed Unsolved.  
> https://discord.gg/wF8yCqG


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